Technical Abstract:
Soil-testing laboratories have an emerging opportunity to provide soil quality (SQ) assessment as a value-added service to clients interested in quantifying the sustainability of their agricultural practices. This presentation briefly reviews the evolution of SQ assessment and introduces four assessment tools with examples of their use in research studies. We conclude that providing SQ assessment services would be a valuable expansion of traditional soil testing, plant analysis and current environmental monitoring (e.g. phosphorus (P) Indices, stalk testing, manure management plans).